conference August 2002
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2002 (En)
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2002 (En)
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LEARNING UNLIMITED in France A meeting for people interested in Learning Unlimited was hosted by Les Enfants d'Abord, a French national homeschooling association, in France, at Laprugne on Tuesday, August 28th, 2002. Elyane Delmarès, who was at Hes Fes in May 2002, presented the aims of the network. People from different countries were asked to speak briefly about the law in their country on home education and about their motivations for coming to the meeting. An Italian couple interested in home education is trying to make contact with other families in Italy in order to create an association. They have been doing some research on the law in Italy. It is perfectly legal to home educate in Italy, but few people know that it is possible. You must declare to the director of the school that you intend to home educate. Francesco would like to be the contact person for Italy and can translate documents into Italian. In Holland the present law only allows homeschooling under very strict conditions : the parents must be able to justify their refusal of schools near them for religious or philosophical reasons. If a parent deschools his child, he is very likely to receive a fine. Peter and family had to pay a fine. He is now appealing his case, hoping to obtain legal recognition of home education in the Netherlands. His case makes reference to the European Convention of Human Rights. He asked a Dutch researcher in education to write a paper on the studies which have been done in other countries on the subject in order to show that home education is a valid alternative to school. This paper has been published in a Dutch educational review and the English version will also be published in the International Review of Education in 2003. Peter would also like to fight for minimal State intervention in this type of education because the risks of failure for the home educated child are minimal. In England, the law authorises home education, and no registration is necessary. However in practice, the degree of state monitoring of home education will depend a lot on the local authorities and different areas of England. In Scotland, stricter legislation has been passed, so the English are paying close attention to any move toward new changes in the law. In Spain, the law does not recognise home education. The Spanish constitution simply states that education is compulsory, so the law is open to interpretation. Xavier is part of a Spanish working group that is working on drafting a law which would respect and authorise home education in Spain. In the second part of the meeting on Thursday, we continued to reflect on what purposes Learning Unlimited could serve and what particular action we could have together. One
person wondered whether there was a need for such a network on a European
level. Perhaps it was better for national organisations to work on a
cooperative basis without having a special network. Some answers to
this were : It was important that home educators from different countries
communicate with one another, and Learning Unlimited would be an encouraging
way to do this. A second response was that there was a need to monitor
and protest against any unfavourable changes in European legislation
in order to protect countries with more favourable laws, and in doing
so, preserve recognition of autonomous learning and home education. What further action could Learning Unlimited take ?
Notes from Jennifer Fandard, Les Enfants d'Abord, France The Autonomous View of Education "I did it my way" In autonomous education the decisions about learning are made by the individual learners. Each one manages and takes responsibility for his or her learning programmes. Individuals may seek advice or look for ideas about what to learn and how to learn it by research or by consulting others. They do not have to re-invent the culture, but interact with it. As an exclusive method it is favoured by liberal or libertarian regimes.
By
Roland Meighan 'Autonomous study by pupils By
Victor MARBEAU The object of autonomous study is to give pupils a greater degree of responsibility in their learning of knowledge and skills. The term itself calls for comment: it is the result of a decision taken by the experts on the council of Europe Committee for General and Technical Education at a meeting on 25 and 26 November 1975. Before then, the American expression "independent study" had been used, but the meeting thought that this term carried non-directive connotations which would hinder its ready introduction into an organised school system. "Autonomy", on the other hand, does not have these implications of permissiveness and freedom in relation to academic constraint and the environment, so "autonomous study" was suggested as a replacement for "independent study". 1. … AUTONOMOUS STUDY The acquisition of greater responsibility and autonomy of behaviour by pupils is becoming one of the essential objectives of our school systems. This is not an a priori statement but a conclusion emerging from the catalogue of implicit and explicit objectives which can be drawn up on the basis of reports submitted by many member States of the Council of Europe in preparation for the Klemskerke (Belgium) symposium in November 1976. Recognition of autonomy as an objective Before giving a few examples, it may be further observed that the Berne conference of European Ministers of Education acknowledged (in June 1973) the need for a plurality of educational methods designed to achieve a more individualised education and promote independent study by pupils. … Why autonomous study? There are three reasons why school systems are now paying so much attention to autonomous study: changes taking place in the school population and in the pupils environment, changes in information technique, and changes in the theory of learning. The first - changes involving the pupils themselves - are familiar enough by now. Much attention has been paid to the evolution of adolescent social behaviour; an acceleration in their biological development has been observed, together with an increased sensitivity to certain external stimuli such as politics, sexual matters and problems of the quality of life and, at the same time, an undeniable fragility resulting from their apprehension in the face of the menacing, indeed explosive quality of modern civilisation and their uncertainty regarding their future employment and career, as manifested in their various refusals (sf. Educational needs of the 16-19 age-group, by Henri Janne and Lucien Geminard, Council of Europe, 1973). This apprehension leads us to an analysis of the factors of social change seen in present trends in our society, which is founded upon rapidity of change, acceleration of evolution, and a permanent state of questioning, as opposed to the relative stability of pre-war societies. The result of all this is that the citizens of today, and still more those of tomorrow, must face the necessity for constant adaptation. And at school this faculty is acquired through the development of responsibility and autonomy in pupils. In addition, the mobile and fluctuating nature of new knowledge and occupations has led to the idea that the methods of learning are more useful than the content of knowledge (although of course there can be no methods without a minimum of content), and that the concept of an initial education confined to school should be replaced by that of a permanent education continuing thought life. This implies an aptitude for self-education, self-teaching and the pupil's potential for successful self-education will depend upon the extent to which he has been exposed to situations of responsibility and autonomy in his school years, for they offer the best means of acquiring a taste for personal effort and desire to progress. The second factor of change derives from the revolution in information techniques. Television, radio, cinema, press, and the importance assumed by publicity of every description, have created an information sector which competes strongly with the traditional school and is called the "parallel school" for that reason. Its influence is not always pernicious and it can even be highly beneficial, but there is no denying that the use of the mass media today is governed by intentions and persuasion techniques which sometimes distort reality. The school must provide young people with the technical knowledge and critical attitudes that can protect their autonomy in this area. The third factor of change relates to new developments in the field of educational psychology… The new school, on the contrary, tries to produce authentic activity, spontaneous effort based on individual needs and interest. As Claparede so rightly expresses it, this does not mean that active education encourages pupils to do whatever they want; "its main demand is that they want whatever they do, whether they are acting or acted upon". Autonomous study very definitely belongs in this context, and Bruner's thesis, although departing from or opposing the school of Piaget in some respects, proceeds from the same idea as regards the importance to be attached to the pupil's own activities….'
'Home
schooling is actually illegal in Greece. I wanted to home school as
I am a learning researcher and teacher but was told that if I did I
would be doing it from behind bars . Sending my sons into the very sad
environment of the Greek state education system breaks my heart - I
actually suffered poor health for two years because of it .It was like
having a knife driven into my heart every time I dropped them off .
I
would like to announce that http://www.alternative-learning.org/ Structure The network will exist predominantly but not exclusively on the internet, with a website and an international mailing list. There will be a contact in every country where possible, who will be responsible for liasing with the central organisation and networking in their country.
Translate Home Education material (literature, newspaper articles, documentaries etc…) into relevant European languages and distribute them as widely as possible making use of all available forms of media. Translate Home Education material from their original European language into English for wider awareness of what is going on in other countries. Work towards a conference to publicise home education and the validity of autonomous learning. Encourage research into home education and autonomous learning and collate existing research into a database. Our
mission statement Our aim is to give support and protection to home educators, who find themselves in difficult situations due to government imposed restrictions. This support will be determined by the needs of the home educating organisations and/or individuals in each country. We are also intent on promoting autonomous home education, helping to make people aware of its existence and possibilities, while offering them support, if required, through a European network of information centres and the internet.
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